On Wed., Sept. 10, 2024, all Lake Land College’s employees got an email from Josh Bullock, the president of Lake Land College about the status of operation of Laker Louie Jr Academy Childcare lab. “…Lake land has made the difficult decision to suspend operation at the Laker Louie Jr Academy Childcare lab, effective October 31.”
The Navigator News took to interviewing Bullock and a member of the Board of Trustee, Ikemefuna Nwosu, the Vice President for Academic Service to shed more light on the situation of the Academy. To clear any misunderstanding, Bullock and Nwosu laid emphasis on the fact that the academy is not shutdown, but operation is just suspended.
Bullock explains that the Laker Louie Childcare facility and staff was funded by a Grant that came through the Illinois College Board and was in the state of Illinois budget. The grant in the past year wasn’t refunded which unfortunately wasn’t feasible to keep the lab open.
The funding for the facility has been running at about $15,000 a month, which the college hasn’t budgeted for because it was funded by a grant. In order to keep up with the fiscal year 2025 budget that was approved by the Board of Trustees, operations had to be suspended.
Lake Land College has been notified by the state since May 2024 that there was not the funding necessary for the Childcare lab. Lake Land College made a decision in collaboration with the board to keep the Lab open till October while actively looking for possible funding sources and partners in order to keep the facility open and they are still actively looking for funding sources and partners. The Academy has only suspended operations, which means if Lake Land can find the right partnership or additional funding to keep the facility open, then the board can be asked to unsuspend the facility.
Employees that were affected as a result of the suspension were notified early on about the suspension and they are aware of Lake Land’s effort in finding funding sources and partnership. The Human Resource department would be working with these employees in transitioning in their career, whether it is getting them a position at Lake Land College or somewhere else.
